Identifying Diseases of Golden Jackals of Bangladesh Agricultural University Campus, Mymensingh, Bangladesh

Abstract

Golden jackals is one of the semidomestic wild carnivors of the environment of Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) campus and now a days very often share spend their time with native dogs and cats in the gouse food wastes . This is not unusual for jackals to share diseases of dogs and cats. This study was aimed to identify important diseases of golden jackals and categorized to their zoonotic importance. A total of five apparently healthy golden jackals were collected from BAU campus and thorough postmortem examination was carried out during the period from July to December , 2010. Histopathological studies were conducted using routine Hematoxylin & Eosin procedure. The existence of blood parasites were studied by Giemsa's staining. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) & Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) were adopted for the detection of tuberculosis (TB), canine distemper (CD) and avain influenza virus (AI) . Other diseases investigated were liverfluke, whipworm, lungworm, mites and ascariasis. Out of five jackals examined, four were infected with heartworm Dirofilaria immitis. Gross examination of a Jackal at necropsy revealed nodular lesions in lungs and suspected as a case of TB. Acid fast staining and PCR protocol specific for TB could not detect mycobacterium in the nodular lungs lesions. Results of RT-PCR with the extracted RNA from liver showed amplification of 287bp fragment specific for CD viral infection in two cases. This is the first study in Bangladesh describing infection of CD in jackals. Jackals are scavanging in nature and reasonably AI could have present in jackals. RT-PCR protocol specific for matrix protein gene of AI viruses did not amplify any nucleic acid fragment . Results of this study showed that the golden jackals of BAU campus were infected with heartworm, lungworm, liverfluke, whipeworm, ascarids, mites and CD viruses. Extensive investigation is needed to explore the existance of few other important diseases of jackals including bovine and human TB , AI, leishmaniasis, r abies, Toxoplasmosis, Infectious canine hepatitis, Taeniasis and Canine hookworm infestation. heartworm, whipworm and mites have zoonotic importance, therefore, it needs to develop stretagy to prevent their future dessimination in human and other animals.

A synoptic overview of golden jackal parasites reveals high diversity of species

“…Spelotrema narii ) India na na na na [ 117 ] na na na na [ 112 ] Opisthorchiidae Metorchis xanthosomus b Russia 21.8 na na necropsy [ 97 ] Opisthorchis sp. Bangladesh na 1/5 na necropsy [ 118 ] Pseudamphistomum truncatum Serbia 0.2 1/447 2 necropsy [ 108 ] 3.3 2/60 na necropsy [ 49 ] Plagiorchiidae Plagiorchis sp. Iran na na na necropsy [ 105 ] Plagiorchis elegans b Russia 3.3 2/60 na necropsy [ 106 ] Plagiorchis massino Uzbekistan na na na na [ 109 ] Schistosomatidae Schistosoma spindale b India case report na CO [ 119 ] Troglotrematidae Nanophyetus salmincola b India case report na ...…”

“… India a 21.6 13/60 na CO [ 144 ] na na na CO [ 196 ] na 2/2 40–700 epg CO [ 197 ] na 3/6 na CO [ 185 ] Toxocara canis (syn. Belascaris marginata ) Azerbaijan 32.6 32/98 1–21 necropsy [ 99 ] na na na necropsy [ 100 ] Bangladesh 40.0 12/30 na necropsy [ 134 ] na 2/5 na CO [ 118 ] Bulgaria 54.5 6/11 na necropsy [ 142 ] 7.7 na na necropsy [ 45 ] Chechnya 50.0 8/16 3–18 necropsy [ 103 ] Greece na 2/5 na necropsy [ 104 ] Hungary 20.0 4/20 na necropsy [ 59 ] …”

“…b Serbia 0.4 2/447 1 necropsy [ 108 ] Metastrongylidae Angiostrongylus vasorum na na 1/1 na EI [ 199 ] Hungary 10.0 2/20 na necropsy [ 59 ] Molineidae Molineus patens Russia 8.3 5/60 na necropsy [ 106 ] 26.0 39/150 3–104 necropsy [ 53 ] Onchocercidae Acanthocheilonema reconditum (syn. Dipetalonema reconditum ) Bulgaria 30.0 3/10 na K [ 200 ] Kenya (as Dipetalonema reconditum ) na na na na [ 201 ] Dirofilaria immitis Azerbaijan na na na necropsy [ 100 ] Bangladesh na 4/5 na necropsy [ 118 ] Bulgaria 8.9 5/56 2–16 necropsy/K [ 202 ] 9.6 na na necropsy [ 45 ] 70.0 ...…”

Passive surveillance on occurrence of deadly infectious, noninfectious and zoonotic diseases of livestock and poultry in Bangladesh and remedies

“…but the disease information is lacking in the hospital data sheet; these may be due to lack of detection protocol or reporting system. There are diseases of cattle, buffaloes, sheep and goats transmitted through domestic and wild mammals and vectors like heart worm infestation (Yousuf et al, 2014) rabies, toxoplasmosis, hydatidosis, coeneurosis etc., these information is also lacking in the hospital recording. A similar study was carried out in Van Gujjars, India (Wright and Thrusfield, 2016) with the perceptions that these diseases should be present, but were under-reported.…”

Investigating Infectious and Zoonotic diseases of Street Dogs in the Residential Area of Bangladesh Agricultural University

“…Canine distemper (CD) on the other hand is a serious, often fatal viral disease in dogs and many other carnivores (Appel, 1987;Yousuf et al, 2014 ). CD is a highly contagious disease of young dogs, distributed worldwide and infect particularly 3 to 6 months age group with high morbidity and mortality.…”